Wilder Mind
by Rachel975
Summary: Sequel to Foundations. Haymitch and Effie are engaged and navigating the ups and downs of life together, beginning with Effie persuading - admittedly through slightly dubious methods - everyone to spend Christmas in the Capitol.
1. Chapter 1

Effie Trinket refused to allow herself to be called manipulative. Cunning, certainly, perhaps a little scheming, but not manipulative. It was the fault of everyone else that they hadn't caught on to her plan, not hers for masterminding it.

"It was Katniss and Peeta who decided we should go and I have already agreed to their plans, so I suggest that unless you want to spend Christmas with your geese and nobody else, you will come with us." she had said to Haymitch who had grumbled about how he liked his geese better than all of them anyway but agreed to come along eventually and she had kissed him gleefully and run across the road to 'tell Katniss and Peeta the good news'.

"It was all Haymitch's idea, and I wouldn't ask you two to come because I know you'd rather stay at home but if we all shut him down the one time he decides to leave the District we'll never get him out of it again." Effie sighed dramatically as though the whole thing was such a chore for her, and she was momentarily glad she had been an escort for so many years because the acting practice was certainly coming in handy. Katniss and Peeta agreed far easier than Haymitch had and she had gone home to 'tell Haymitch the good news' feeling very pleased with herself indeed.

"I can't believe I agreed to this." Haymitch said while they ate dinner on the train, shaking his head.

"Wait, agreed to this?" Katniss asked him with a frown. "The whole reason we're coming is because you suggested it and Effie said…" Katniss stopped speaking as realisation dawned on her. "You tricked us!" Effie sighed indignantly and brushed her hair back from her face.

"I did not trick you. I merely mislead you a little until it was too late to turn back."

"Well done, sweetheart." Haymitch sighed in defeat and she beamed. And that was how Effie ensured that her family would be spending Christmas in the Capitol.

Annie and her son met them at the train station with bright smiles – Effie had revealed her plan to her a few days ago and invited them both along and Annie had been so delighted at the prospect of seeing them all again that she hadn't complained at all about Effie 's slightly dubious methods. If only everyone could be as uncomplaining as Annie. Haymitch became visibly much happier when he saw them stood there and Effie grinned proudly to herself because as long as he was happy to see them he wouldn't complain too much about being there.

"It's so good to see you, dear!" Effie greeted her, hugging her fiercely and kissing her on the cheek, not caring that she was going to rumple her seasonally appropriate red dress. "I do hope you've settled in well." Annie had been here a day already and Effie had told her to go to her apartment and make herself at home there.

"We have, your home is so lovely, Effie!" Annie gushed as her son shouted 'Goose!' over her until Haymitch lifted him up and he quietened down.

"I barely remember what it looks like." Effie brushed off. "I've been so busy trying to make Haymitch's hovel of a house halfway bearable around all the geese and dirt that I've forgotten what decent decorating looks like!"

"I'm enjoying us living together too, my darling." Haymitch said, shaking his head at her dramatics.

"Shall we walk back or would you like to take a car?" Effie asked, ignoring her fiancé completely. "I think we should walk, all of you have seen so little of the Capitol and it really is beautiful at Christmas with all the lights and the events. Oh, we shall have to go ice-skating while we're here, it's absolutely magical, you'll all love it!" The entire walk home consisted of her making similar suggestions. Annie and Peeta hung off her every word and seemed absolutely thrilled to be there, she noticed and ignored the looks that Katniss and Haymitch occasionally shot each other which seemed to ask how she had managed to trick them all so expertly without raising any kind of red flags. Effie was slightly amazed that she had managed to pull it off, but she was entirely willing to put it down to her own intelligence and sly, careful planning than admitting it was mostly luck.

"So Effie, how is it being engaged?" Annie asked her. Effie's eyes flitted to the ring she wore very proudly, and then to Haymitch who was walking a little behind them hand in hand with Annie's son which she thought was absolutely adorable, so much so that she almost replied properly and said how much she was enjoying it, but she had picked up his ability never to be able to resist teasing him.

"Well, he still hasn't agreed to get rid of the geese so I can only speak so highly of it."

"And she's still wearing the most obnoxiously coloured dresses ever made, so I can only speak so highly of it too." Haymitch hit back at her and she held his gaze for a moment before they both burst out laughing. Annie looked to Katniss and Peeta questioningly who were sharing the same slightly exasperated look they always did when Haymitch and Effie were trying to irritate each other.

"Are they always like this?" Annie asked them. She hadn't really seen them much like this, Effie had been so busy when she was staying in District 12 and she and Haymitch had been less eager to broadcast their relationship then anyway.

"Yes, it's just their way." Peeta told her with a small sigh as Effie took Haymitch's hand, smiling.

They reached Effie's building and took the elevator up to her penthouse apartment and she realised then she hadn't changed as much as she liked to think because she was already delighting in how impressed Katniss, Peeta, and even Haymitch were by the decadence of her old home, decorated lavishly and expensively in grey, white, and purple predominantly. She showed Katniss and Peeta to the guest room that Annie hadn't taken and showed Haymitch to her room and instructed them all to unpack while she went into her kitchen to make them all some tea.

Effie felt very strange being in her old home. She had missed how pretty it was, that was true, but she already missed her garden and the fresh air of home, the forest that she and Haymitch walked through most days where he would lift her over obstacles because she still insisted on wearing her heels wherever she went and she felt odd, remembering how lonely she had been here sometimes. She had never been lonely the entire time she had lived in District 12, she had never been anything other than happy there. The Capitol was beautiful at Christmas time and she was delighted to be back visiting so she could see some of her old friends and show her family the few good things there were about the Capitol, but being back she realised that she would never want to live here again.

"I unpacked for you." Haymitch announced as he came into the kitchen. "And I put everything in your wardrobe by colour."

"You are learning!" Effie exclaimed delightedly as she took the kettle off the heat and poured the water into the teapot. The second she put it down Haymitch put her arms around her from behind and kissed her on the cheek. "I'm trying to make tea, Haymitch, please let me be a good hostess." She grinned to herself and they both knew she didn't mind at all.

"This could actually be fun." Haymitch admitted. "But I'm not ice-skating"

"Yes you are."


	2. Chapter 2

Effie took them all ice-skating their fourth day in the Capitol. Haymitch tagged along with the group, relieved that he had gotten her to promise that she wouldn't drag him onto the ice, that he could sit in a nearby café and have a hot drink or watch them from outside. Effie had been agreeable because he had attended every other event she had planned. He would never admit it but he was having a good time in the Capitol. Maybe it wasn't all bad.

"Haymitch, I would like to introduce by good friends Juliana and Drusilla. We've all known each other since we were children." Effie said. Today she was wearing a white dress which still seemed incredibly bright to him. He wondered how someone could be that blinding in a 'neutral' colour. She had told him that she was inviting some of her Capitol friends along. His horror at the suggested had not surprised her but neither had it persuaded her to disinvite them. Katniss, Annie, and Peeta were already skating, and Annie's son was sleeping in his pushchair.

Juliana had a similar look about her to the one Effie did now, clearly of the Capitol, still too overdressed to be from anywhere else, but far more natural than before the rebellion. Like Effie she wore natural make-up and she her own hair rather than a wig, chestnut brown, and she smiled warmly at him and shook his hand. She had kind hazel eyes. Before the rebellion she likely would have worn contacts, blue, green, and a number of unnatural colours were fashionable in the Capitol but now shade of brown had ever been desirable, although Haymitch got the sense that she had never dressed as theatrically as everyone else in the Capitol, she didn't seem the kind who wanted to draw attention to herself. He immediately liked her. Looking at Drusilla it would have been easy for Haymitch to think he had time travelled, she looked exactly as ridiculous as anyone from the Capitol ever had, dark blue wig, lips and eyes a matching colour. He recognised her as another escort.

"Yes, I was an escort." Drusilla announced proudly as if reading his mind. He noticed the look passing between Effie and Juliana when she said it. "A far higher regarded District than little Effie though, I hope she won't mind me saying." With that she was marching off.

"Well some of us decided not to sleep our way up to District 2." Effie muttered under her breath as Juliana laughed, shaking her head.

"You'd think the rebellion would have taught her to be a little less proud. She escorted vicious killers who delighted in the games, Effie escorted the face of the rebellion and numerous children who were unprepared and killed for sport and she still looks down on her." Juliana said to him, shaking her head, and he actually smiled as she tried to involve him in the conversation.

"Haymitch, Juliana can't skate, I was rather hoping you'd keep her company." Effie said brightly. She had cunningly waited until the last minute to ask because she knew that even he wasn't rude enough to refuse with Juliana right in front of him. He nodded in agreement and she clasped her hands together. "Wonderful! Have a lovely time you two!" She kissed them both on the cheek before she left.

"You don't have to stay with me, I've heard enough about you from her over the years to have realised that you don't like company all that much."

"No, I don't mind at all, I'd love to hear stories about Effie when she was younger that I can torture her with later." Juliana laughed and took a seat at the table he had found himself and he sat down opposite her. "So Effie used to complain about me a lot?" She laughed again and Haymitch was glad that Effie had at least one friend with a decent sense of humour. He didn't see Drusilla as the type to laugh at anything much at all.

"Every year after the games ended I had dinner with her during which she vented for several hours about exactly what you'd done that year. I liked to tease her and say I thought she had a thing for you because it wouldn't bother her so much if she didn't and then she'd rant for another hour or so about how ridiculous that was. It was one of the best parts of my year. I think it helped her cope with the games as a whole, not just to cope with you. I never actually expected to be proved right about her crush on you though…" She trailed off as Effie pirouetted past them on the ice. "She's always been such a show off. I used to be able to do that…"

"And you can't anymore?" Haymitch asked, curious but not wanting to ask her what might have seemed a very invasive question outright. Effie was a good influence on him. Juliana grinned and bent at the waist, disappearing under the table for a moment.

"Think fast." she said as she came up and threw something at him that landed neatly in his lap. He jolted sharply when he realised that he was holding a foot – a prosthetic of course, but no less shocking. Juliana grinned. "The best part of having that thing is throwing it at people, the looks they give you. I don't think it'll ever stop being funny. There was a bad snowstorm one year, it was like one minute there was nothing and the next six feet of snow was trapping you inside. I got snowed into my freezing cold basement when I went down to find some candles. My foot practically fell off before they could amputate it." Haymitch realised he had been right about her, she wasn't like other people from the Capitol who would convulse in horror if they had to wear an ugly prosthetic, not openly tell the story and rejoice in making other people squirm using it. Haymitch couldn't think of what to say but she was still grinning so he took it as a sign he didn't have to be overly serious.

"Would you like your foot back?" Haymitch asked her with a smirk and she roared with laughter and nodded, wiping tears from under her eyes as she took it back and dived back under the table presumably to affix it back.

"Haymitch!" He heard his name and looked over to the skating rink to see Effie and Annie gliding past arm in arm. "Where is Juliana?" She popped up and Effie made a started sound.

"I was just putting my foot back on. Thought Haymitch would get a kick out of it." She laughed loudly and suddenly. "Kick, right, because it's my prosthetic foot?" Haymitch nodded in appreciation and then pretended not to find it funny when Effie glared at the pair of them. They looked at each other and tried not to snigger.

"Oh for goodness sake, it's bad manners to remove limbs in public, Juliana! I knew you two would get along well." Effie said with a sigh, waving them away before she skated off again.

Haymitch spent a very nice afternoon chatting with Juliana until the others were tired of skating and decided to come and join them both. Effie introduced the others to Juliana who seemed very pleased to meet them all. He assumed they had all familiarised themselves with Drusilla already. An afternoon with a genuinely pleasant person had done nothing to dull the immediate distaste he felt for Effie's other friend. Even Effie herself didn't seem to hold her in particularly high regard. They all decided to go to a nearby restaurant although Haymitch wondered why they were obligated to invite her.

Drusilla managed to get a few digs in over dinner which everyone mostly ignored, but the worst came as they were leaving.

"He's not good enough for you, Effie." Haymitch heard her hiss into Effie's ear. Effie carried on fastening her scarf around her neck and didn't respond. "I mean look at you now, living in District 12 of all places! Come home, away from the cesspit of common people and dirt and I promise I won't mention this little lapse in judgement again." Effie stared very hard at her.

"I'm perfectly happy where I am, thank you for your concern." It was the closest thing to a sneer that he had ever heard Effie say. Unlike all the times he bothered her and she looked irritated at best, he could see the true anger flaring up in her eyes now, and Drusilla shrunk back away from her. Once she was far enough back and definitely not going to speak again Effie gave her a delightful, innocent smile. "It was so lovely to see you, do keep in touch!" She waved enthusiastically and linked her arm with Haymitch's as she guided them both out of the restaurant. She didn't speak on the way home but Haymitch could hear the spiteful woman's voice with every step.

Everyone else went to bed almost immediately after they got in and Effie wandered into the kitchen to catch up with the dishes. Having so many people around generated a lot of mess which Effie didn't like to leave uncleaned. He stood in the doorway and watched her.

"Haymitch, you're loitering, please either pick up a dish cloth and help me or make yourself useful elsewhere." Effie said without even turning around to look at him. He didn't know how she could tell when he was in a room, he thought he was fairly good at sneaking around, especially now he was sober and didn't trip over things all the time. He took a cloth and started drying what she washed up and she smiled at him gratefully. "See? Being helpful isn't so difficult. What did you want anyway, I know you didn't intend on actually helping."

"I heard what she said, Eff."

"I'm well aware of that, you were standing around three feet away, I'd be concerned if you hadn't." Effie said with a small smile as she handed him a plate to dry and started scrubbing out the mugs which had begun to pile up.

"Effie…"

"Haymitch…" she said, mimicking his tone, taking her hands out of the basin and drying them. "I have known Drusilla for nearly my entire life, and I have never once paid a moment of attention to any of her ridiculous opinions, and I don't intend to start tonight. I do love her, and most of the time she is a fairly pleasant individual, not that you'd know it, but I knew what she was going to think of you, she's already said far worse about me living in District 12. I wanted you to meet her and Juliana today, Juliana because she is my closest friend who cares about my happiness and Drusilla because I wanted her to know that I am happy despite her opinions which I will continue to ignore. I was treating today rather like a wedding rehearsal and it is safe to say she will not be getting invited to the actual event."

"But you know she's right. I'm not-"

"Haymitch if you finish that sentence I will pour the basin of water over your head even though it will ruin my floor." Effie said, holding a hand up to halt him, and he had to smile. "Neither of us is too good for the other. We entirely deserve each other after what we went through, especially you, Haymitch, and I never want to hear you saying otherwise. In fact, you will promise me this second that you will never say that you aren't good enough for me, and you will uphold that for the rest of our lives."

"Fine." He was aware that he was starting to fold too easily with her, he needed to start putting up more of a fight sometimes or she might get the (entirely accurate) impression that he was wrapped around her little finger. "I won't every say I'm not good enough for you."

"Thank you. Now, finish the dishes, please, I would like to go to bed." Effie instructed him brightly. He rolled his eyes but didn't argue with her.

"I won't be long." he assured her as she walked towards their room.

"Do them properly, I'll be inspecting them tomorrow morning!" she called back over her shoulder.


	3. Chapter 3

"I'm going out on my own today." Effie announced one morning. His head was resting in her lap and she was holding her book in one hand, which was remaining largely ignored in favour of stroking her other hand through his hair. He had to admit, even though he missed home, mornings here were far more peaceful due to the lack of geese for Effie to throw a tantrum over.

"And what are we supposed to do all day?" Haymitch asked her, sitting up so he could look at her.

"I'm sure you'll amuse yourselves. Get Peeta to bake something, play a game of cards, read a book, god for a walk, I'm surely not so integral to your amusement that you can't survive a few hours without me. You could even invite Juliana round, she's desperate to see you all again, she's terribly bored at the moment." Haymitch mentally struck off visiting Juliana as a reason she would need to abandon them for a few hours. He was clearly going to have to work out on his own what it was as she seemed reluctant to share this information herself.

"Juliana's not going to come over unless you're here."

"Haymitch, unlike you some people are actually eager to make new friends, so Juliana will be more than happy to accept your invitation." Effie sighed deeply. Haymitch hummed, unsure. "Would you like me to call her and invite her for you?" Haymitch nodded, encouraging another sigh from Effie. "Fine! You are such a baby!" she huffed as she got up and pulled on a robe to go to the phone. Haymitch knew she wouldn't have put up normally, but she really wanted to encourage a friendship between Haymitch and Juliana. Effie obviously cared a lot about her opinion, but more than that Haymitch thought she felt some responsibility to keep the other woman happy, and he wondered if that was just because they had been friends for so long or if there was another reason for that. Once he heard her on the phone he got out of bed

"Frankly I just don't trust him not to steal all the silverware…" Effie laughed. He could hear her on the phone but it was an irritating half conversation that he couldn't make much sense of. "Well I don't know, some point this afternoon… I'll tell you later darling… No, nothing's wrong, am I not allowed secrets?" Effie laughed again. "Okay, I need to run now, but have a lovely time today!" She put the phone back on the wall and looked over to see Haymitch and rolled her eyes. "You know you could attempt to make your own friends instead of stealing mine and then making me do all the work."

"But you're so good at it." Effie smiled and touched a hand to her chest.

"Flattery will get you everywhere." Effie said, even though it was something he knew very well about her already.

Effie had her usual morning coffee and refused breakfast before she went to go and get dressed, coming out of their room only a few minutes later, which seemed to Haymitch a red flag in itself, then coupled with the fact she was wearing an extremely muted shade of purple but before he could express concern in a lovingly sarcastic way by asking why she was choosing today not to blind him she was kissing him and then suddenly out of the door. He shook his head and put the kettle on again in anticipation that this was usually around the time that Katniss got up and quite fancying another coffee himself.

"Where's Effie?" Katniss asked, never one to say good morning when she could get straight into conversation. Haymitch greatly appreciated that about her. Haymitch poured out a mug of tea for her and handed it to her after she had hopped up onto the counter.

"Out. We're to amuse ourselves for the day apparently. Juliana's coming over at some point."

"Of course she would drag us the whole way here and then get bored of spending time with us, she's missed her Capitol social life being in District 12 with us, we don't dote on her adoringly nearly enough. I bet we don't see her again apart from one hour on Christmas morning and then the train station on the last day so we can leave together."

"She seemed to think she'll be back this afternoon but I think if it's longer we shouldn't complain, all our eyes need a rest after the bright orange monstrosity she wore yesterday." Katniss groaned as though the memory gave her a headache.

"At least Juliana doesn't dress like a living migraine. She seemed nice the other day when I was speaking to her at the skating rink, she's much more like the two of us than Effie." Katniss observed, and Haymitch had to agree that was true. "I think Effie likes people like us to keep her grounded or else she'd fly away like a hot air balloon of manners." Haymitch chucked at the mental image of Effie floating away into the sky shrieking something or other about which fork should be used for a fish course.

Everyone else was up a little while. Peeta baked as Effie had suggested he should, impressed by how many baking appliances Effie owned, all of which he noted looked as though they had never been used which did not surprise Haymitch in the least. Everyone in the Capitol owned expensive crap that they barely bothered unboxing. Haymitch sat on the floor and played toy trains with Annie's son and Annie and Katniss had decided to play cards saying there was 'nothing else to do' and ended up betting quite heavily on their games and getting loud and competitive.

Juliana arrived at about midday and settled into the kitchen with Peeta once she realised he was baking. The pair came out sometimes to run out to get more ingredients or to bring out the occasional pot of tea with portions of whatever they had baked the most recently for everyone to try, and Haymitch almost had a nice enough day to forget his concern about Effie. Not quite though.

Effie breezed back in at some point in the afternoon when they were sat eating white chocolate and raspberry cookies. The others all greeted her warmly, and she smiled at them all but didn't say anything before she went into her bedroom. Haymitch waited a minute and made sure everyone was okay if he left for a little while before he got up and followed her in there.

"I was rather hoping you'd all be out." Effie admitted as she made eye contact with him using the mirror on her dressing table which she was sitting at, unclasping her necklace and laying it down with a small sigh. She had already left her dress in a pile on the floor and put on the loungewear that she liked to sleep in. Usually she was careful to only wear things like that after she knew everyone apart from her and Haymitch was asleep. "I've had a very stressful day." She didn't ask him to leave her alone, and he was well aware by now that it was because when Effie was upset she liked quiet comfort, not solitude.

"What can I do, Eff?" he asked her. She smiled although it looked like it might break into tears at any moment and his heart broke for a second.

"Nothing. I just want to lie down."

She got up and went over to lie on the bed and without a second thought Haymitch went to lie beside her, arms around her, pulling her close to his chest in a way that he knew she found especially comforting.

"Tell me what's wrong, Eff."

"I went to visit my mother this morning. Not quite by choice, it's why I was so late; I went out with a different intention entirely and happened to run into her by accident." In all the time he had known her, Haymitch had never once heard Effie mention any family member. He realised he didn't know whether she had siblings. He had assumed she was like him and just didn't have any, although from how upsetting she had found visiting her mother he wondered if she might have preferred just not to have any at all. "She's unwell-" Haymitch's breath hitched and Effie corrected herself quickly. "No, no, that's nothing new, she has been for a while, it's not getting any better but it's no worse either. I know I should sound more concerned. Anyway, it was four hours nearly of her being hysterical about me having moved out of the Capitol without telling her even though she told me never to speak to her again after she found out I was a part of the rebellion." Effie sounded more and more annoyed and Haymitch rubbed his hand up and down her arm in what he hoped would constitute a soothing gesture. "I didn't even get around to telling her about the engagement, I was so annoyed that I stormed out of her house. I don't think I've had a conversation with her since I was seventeen that hasn't ended in a screaming match."

"So I won't be meeting her any time soon then?" Haymitch asked and she laughed, genuinely for the first time since she had come back and he was very relieved that he was at least making things a little better for her. It was painful to see her so upset.

"No, safe to say you won't be. And I feel bad about it, I really do, but the morning I had was… Well, it wasn't bad, not at all. Just stressful."

"Would you like to vent about that too, sweetheart?" he offered.

"It's not really the type of thing I need to vent about, I just needed to process it. It's not bad, it's not something to worry about… But it's not fair to keep it from you…" Effie sat up quickly and pinched the bridge of her nose. "This day is giving me the worst tension headache." Haymitch sat up next to her and slid his arm around her waist. He noticed that she was clenching and unclenching a fist, a habit she'd had as long as he'd known her on the odd occasions that words were escaping her. He brushed one hand through her soft blonde hair.

"Tell me on the count of three?" Haymitch suggested, not because he was impatient, just because he wanted to relieve her of at least some of the stress that had built up over the day. Effie laughed and nodded in agreement, both of them aware it might take hours before she managed on her own. "One, two-"

"I went to the doctors. I'm pregnant."

He was silent for what he hoped wasn't too long.

"That wasn't on three, Eff." The look she shot him was the visual equivalent of throwing a knife at him before she laughed somewhat hysterically. "No, but Eff, this is…"

"Really very unexpected. And if you're unhappy or-"

"I was going to say this is amazing." he cut her off before she could worry any more about whether or not he as pleased because he was on the verge of breaking down in tears of joy. He pulled her tightly into a hug and heard her breathing a sigh of relief. "Eff, you must have realised how happy I'd be about this?"

"I mean I hoped you would be. I must say, it clearly takes after you already, arriving so rudely out of the blue."

"Because that wasn't exactly how you started living with me?"

"Well, yes, I suppose it was." Effie picked at a loose thread on the bedsheet and Haymitch could tell she was smiling to herself. She seemed far more at ease now she had shared everything with him, and he was glad she hadn't tried to keep this from him for a while, the idea of her worrying about a pregnancy on her own bothered him greatly. He didn't even like that she had gone to the doctors by herself, he was so determined to make this as easy as possible for her. "I'm about a month and a half along, so not far at all, and I'd like to wait before we tell people if that's alright with you." He had never once known Effie to neglect sharing news with everyone she met, but he supposed this was different to simple gossip or even their engagement.

"I think that's a very good idea." Haymitch agreed. "Perhaps we should go outside now though and just let the others know you're okay." Effie nodded and stood up and stretched.

"I'm going to be even more horribly demanding than usual, you know." she warned him as she checked her appearance in the mirror. She didn't bother getting dressed again and he knew better than to say anything about it. Today wasn't the day for irritating her, she was still dealing with the aftermaths of stress and he was too damn happy to try.

"I know. I think it'll be worth it." Effie grinned and put her arms around him, kissing him deeply. He took her hand before they went out and joined the others. He didn't pay attention to the conversation they were having, he was just consumed by one incredible thought.

 _I am going to be a father._


	4. Chapter 4

Two days before Christmas, Haymitch and Katniss offered to go out and get a tree. Everyone was very excited by the prospect of decorating it and they had all said yes, apart from Effie herself. Effie had been horrified by the very notion, she had refused to have a tree in her apartment for years, having to clean up pine needles dropping off it plus the possible dirt it would bring in was not at all appealing to her, but she was apparently outvoted.

"In my own house!" she had cried dramatically while Katniss ushered Haymitch out the door quickly so she wouldn't barricade them in.

Peeta found boxes of unopened Christmas decorations in the closet in his room and once she had recovered a little she set about helping him and Annie to make her home look a little more festive. She liked decorating but there had never been much point. Her Christmas's had usually consisted of a party every evening, none of which she ever bothered to host, so decorating seemed a fairly futile gesture.

"Stay on theme!" she kept screeching at Peeta and Annie, pretending she didn't see the exasperated looked they shot each other when she did. She had decorations of every colour but after careful deliberation she had instructed them to use only the blue lights and the purple and silver ornaments. Annie had ridiculously asked why they couldn't just use the ones the liked best, to which Effie had frowned at her as though she was very offended until Annie sat down and started picking out things of the correct colours. "And remember, we don't want to over decorate!"

"I knew this wouldn't be fun." Annie huffed while Peeta tried not to laugh.

"Some of us are having fun!" Effie said brightly. "I love a theme!"

"Theme!" Annie's son parroted from where he was sat on the floor rolling stray baubles around. Effie beamed at him.

"That's right, darling!" Effie cooed at him, sweeping him up into her arms and ruffling his hair. She could only hope her own child would be as enthusiastic about themes as Annie's little boy was. She kept wondering whether it was going to be more like her or Haymitch. She hoped it took more after him, she worried and stressed over the most minor of provocations, she wanted her child to be a little more at ease than she ever was. Still, it would be nice to have a child who cared about themes and style too, if only to make a point to Haymitch that things like that were important and she wasn't the only person in the world who cared about them.

Effie didn't help much apart from advising (translation: dictating) exactly what Peeta and Annie should be putting where while she reclined on the sofa. They were done by mid-afternoon and Peeta suggested that they bake some sugar cookies while they waited for the other two to get back so they could decorate the tree and while Annie's son was sleeping. Annie agreed that this was a very nice idea, Effie only accompanied them because she was worried they might ruin her kitchen. Not Peeta who was an experienced baker and knew she liked him to tidy up after himself, but Annie who was an absolute disaster in the kitchen. Sure enough Effie was shrieking within ten minutes of them starting because Annie had got a speck of flour on her dress. Exasperated, Annie had then thrown an entire handful of flour at her not looking a bit sorry for it.

"I'll never get this out!" Effie wailed. Peeta patted her shoulder and was once again trying not to laugh while Annie rolled her eyes.

"It's just flour, Effie! Lighten up!" Annie said irritatedly. Effie glared but waited until the other woman had turned her back to stir the mixture before she grabbed the box and tipped a little more than she had intended onto Annie's head. Annie looked up, shocked, and Effie covered her mouth, disappointed by her own actions, hoping Annie didn't storm out of the house and never speak to her again. Annie grinned as she brushed the rather large pile of flour from the top of her head.

The next ten minutes consisted of them ruining Effie's kitchen completely, first with flour and Peeta trying to stop them, then with sugar and him giving up trying to placate them and hiding under the table to avoid the fire, and then with an egg landing by his feet and both women swearing that the other was the one who had thrown it. They were still blaming each other for that when Haymitch and Katniss appeared in the doorway.

"I see you've managed to amuse yourselves." Haymitch said with raised eyebrows. Effie and Annie looked at each other in embarrassment. It was not very often Haymitch managed to take the moral high ground.

"I think perhaps we got a little carried away…" Effie said in an uncharacteristic understatement as she looked around, wondering where to even begin cleaning it. She caught sight of her reflection in the glass cabinet, face, clothes, and hair all covered, and Annie looked no better next to her. The women looked at each other again and started laughing.

"I'm a mother! I shouldn't be engaging in food fights." Annie said, shaking her head. Effie had the urge to say something similar but didn't, although Haymitch was giving her a look that said he was thinking much the same. Annie misread this as Haymitch being annoyed with her. "Haymitch trust me, you would have done the same, she's driven us crazy with her Christmas theme today." Annie mimicked Effie's accent and sounded slightly hysterical as she said 'Christmas theme' and Effie pouted at the annoyingly accurate impression of her.

"Stop complaining about the theme!"

"Okay," Katniss said before they started throwing more things. "Let's start cleaning this up, Peeta, go help Haymitch bring the tree up, I'll help Annie and Effie and stop more chaos from happening." They all agreed to her plan.

"You are right though Annie, I probably would have thrown flour at her hours ago." Haymitch said as he left. Effie glared but Annie looked at her smugly. "And you can't say that it hasn't improved that dress." Peeta left the kitchen quickly, Effie suspected it was because he was worried he might get caught in a crossfire between she and Haymitch which was a valid concern.

It actually didn't take too long to get the kitchen back to normal, sweeping up the flour and washing the floor and surfaces was easy enough. Annie and Effie spent a large amount of time apologising profusely to each other while Katniss tried not to laugh at how ridiculous they both were. Within an hour the kitchen was immaculate and the pair were changed and back in the lounge to help decorate the tree. Effie wanted to remind them all about the theme but, fearing her front room would not be as salvageable as the kitchen, she decided not to. Haymitch noticed her worrying and put and arm around her and squeezed her tightly.

"I'll make sure they stay on theme, sweetheart." he said quietly to her which she realised later was a deliberate lie when he kept sneaking red and green baubles onto the tree ("But they are Christmas themed, Eff." "Not the right Christmas theme!") which she had to take down.

Her plan was only scuppered when Annie got her little boy up from his nap – Effie was amazed he had managed to sleep through the commotion in the kitchen – and he decided to help. Effie took charge of him to make sure his decorations were evenly spaced out and for the most part she managed the child well until he toddled off to the box of decorations and found a gold bauble under the table that he wanted to put on the tree.

"This one, Fie!" he insisted when she gently suggested he change it for another one. The others all seemed to be watching her now. Effie sighed but obliged. It made her skin itch to have something so out of place but even she couldn't shut down a child for something as pointless as this was. She did however make sure it went on the side of the tree that she wouldn't be able to see from the sofa or else it would make her uncomfortable until they took the tree down. Annie smiled at her gratefully and mouthed a 'thank you'. Effie was annoyed at herself for being duped into believing the child was enthusiastic about themes earlier and made a mental note to herself to go through all the decorations and pick a theme for next year and hide whatever wouldn't fit it.

"Don't worry." Haymitch said to her quietly while the others were all distracted in conversation. "Ours will be just as pedantic about these things as you are, I'm sure." Effie shook her head.

"No, I'm sure it will torture me like you do but perhaps that's a good thing." Haymitch smiled and took her over to the sofa where she would not be able to see the out of place ornament but she kept shifting uncomfortably. "I still know it's there." she sighed when he asked what was wrong now.

"He's going to notice if you take it down." Haymitch warned her.

"I know. I'll have to learn to live with it, I suppose."


	5. Chapter 5

"Let's not tell them at all. You can just get bigger and bigger and then when in seven months or so they finally get up the courage to ask you can just pretend to be very offended and make yourself cry and then when you have the baby we can all laugh about it." Haymitch suggested. Effie rolled her eyes. All she had asked was when they should tell the others about the baby.

"We can't just not tell everyone and have the baby be some kind of extended practical joke."

"It's an option at least."

They were lying together in bed and they had been talking for hours. They often kept each other up until the small hours of the morning just talking about whatever came to mind. Effie missed home because she didn't have to stifle her laughter in fear of waking somebody up when she was there. It was Christmas Eve – no, actually, it must have been Christmas day already, they had gone to bed at eleven and they had certainly been talking for an hour, if not much longer. Seeing that they could bat this backwards and forwards for a long while before either of them conceded, Effie decided to change the subject.

"Do you think we'll have a boy or a girl?" she asked. She was trying to distract him, but it was also something she kept thinking about, and she was interested what he thought.

"I know what I would prefer."

"Haymitch!" she exclaimed, horrified. "You're not supposed to have a preference!" He laughed and his breath tickled the top of her head. She snuggled closer into him. "So which do you want?"

"A girl."

"I didn't actually want you to tell me!"

"What was I meant to think you wanted me to tell you apart from an answer to the direct question you asked me, Eff?"

"I wanted you to refuse to tell me and then when I gave birth you would tell me that I had what you wanted even if it wasn't true. Obviously." Effie shook her head and he brushed his fingers through her hair.

"Obviously."

"Do you have any ideas for names yet?"

"We have a while, Eff. Besides, both of us know that you're going to make the final decision." Effie took a sip of her tea which had cooled a little too much now to be palatable. If they didn't stop speaking to go to bed soon then she would probably go and make another. She drank tea constantly now because the coffee in District 12 wasn't up to her standards. She could bear one cup in the morning to shock her into being awake, and that was it.

"Haymitch, this is our child, it's not like picking a Christmas theme, I'm not just going to ignore your input for things like the name, I'm not that controlling." She wasn't looking at him but she could guess the unconvinced look he was wearing. "Well, I am usually, but not with this."

"We could name it after one of us."

"That's a wonderful plan if you want a little girl named Euphemia."

"That's your full name?" Haymitch asked, sounding absolutely delighted. Effie instantly regretted the admission. "Oh Eff, I'm going to have so much fun with that."

"Haymitch please don't tell the others."

"Don't worry, Eff, I plan on holding this over your head many times in the future and that won't work at all if everybody knows."

"You're not allowed to be mean to me, I'm an emotionally fragile pregnant woman."

"You were fairly emotionally fragile before this though, you have been upset over a bauble for the last two days." Haymitch reminded her. Effie groaned, wishing he hadn't reminded her of it. He seemed to quickly realise his mistake. "Sorry, Eff." He was well aware, having known her for a number of years, of her very obsessive tendencies. She liked things to be in place, ordered, and well organised, it was the reason she had been good at being an escort and planning weddings. "Think about names again."

"Are we going in a more Capitol or District 12 direction with it?"

"Well if Euphemia is the kind of thing the Capitol has to offer then I don't think we can subject a child to that." Effie laughed.

"I think that's fair." Effie paused. Since they were having this discussion, she thought it was a good time to bring up an idea she'd actually had seconds after learning that she was pregnant. "I was thinking, if you wanted we could name it after one of your family members, it would be meaningful, but only if you wanted to."

"You should have sneakily asked me what my family were called before you suggested that, Eff, then you could have gauged whether or not you wanted our child named after them." Effie laughed. She wouldn't deny that she had thought about it, but the gesture presented like this seemed kinder to her.

"I was willing to take a gamble."

"Well, my brother's name was Ronan, and my mother was Amelia. They're the two I'd like to name the baby after if we do this but Eff, you don't have to, if you don't like them I won't be offended, we'll pick something out together." Effie sat up so she could look at him and smiled softly.

"No, I think they're both beautiful."

"It means a lot to me that you thought of this." Haymitch said in a rare moment of seriousness and gratitude as she lay back down, head resting on him. "You are a very selfless person, even if you pretend not to be. Euphemia." She shoved his chest and he laughed. "I am very sorry but I won't be letting that go ever."

"You know being nice for more than two minutes at a time wouldn't kill you."

"I don't think I could chance it, Eff."

They talked quietly for another hour or so before they agreed to go to sleep. Peeta and Annie were both like children, excessively excited about Christmas, and they had told everyone that they were going to wake up early so the festivities could begin quickly. It had worked out nicely for Effie's Christmas day schedule which was jam packed of activities that she knew everyone would greatly enjoy once they stopped complaining about the existence of the schedule. She could feel Haymitch dropping off to sleep beside her but she couldn't sleep.

"Haymitch." She whispered. He groaned instead of replying. "I just remembered the gold bauble."

"Go to sleep, Eff."

Eventually she managed, soothed by the sound of him breathing softly behind her and the feel of his hand resting on her stomach.


	6. Chapter 6

Haymitch awoke to the sound of quiet knocking on his door. Effie stirred quietly at his side, not completely woken by it, and Haymitch pulled her in closer to him as if to shield her from being woken. He could hear voices on the other side of the door; he knew it was Annie and Peeta. They'd probably already got to poor Katniss. He couldn't save himself but he could try to save Effie if he was completely still and quiet.

"I can't hear anything." Peeta said. Haymitch gritted his teeth but remained quiet. Effie stirred again at the voices and he winced.

"No, that was definitely movement! They're probably awake and ignoring us." Annie insisted, and Haymitch shook his head. What was she, some kind of bat to be able to hear that? "Effie won't mind, she'll just be happy to start the day." Haymitch almost laughed. Effie was a very amiable person in the morning, once she'd had a coffee, unless she was woken before she was ready. It took hours to repair her mood sometimes, but he decided to let Annie and Peeta figure that out for themselves. Hopefully it would be a lesson they would remember next Christmas. "Effie!" Annie called out, now at full volume and Effie's eyes flew open as she looked to the window and realised it was still dark outside. She looked at Haymitch, realising quickly it wasn't his fault she was awake.

"Annie and Peeta." Haymitch told her quietly and she scowled in the direction of the door.

"Go away!" Effie shouted at them, and Haymitch could only imagine how surprised they both looked on the other side of the door. He liked when she was angry and it wasn't directed at him. "You two are behaving like children! Not to mention if we get up now my entire schedule for the day will be thrown out of sync." Haymitch thought she might have lost her way a bit there, Annie and Peeta would probably be quite happy about that. "Now leave us alone at least until it is actually light outside!" Haymitch heard Annie and Peeta scuffling away from their door and he smiled. "Oh dear, I should have asked them to bring me some coffee since they're up."

"I think they were a little too busy being yelled at a minute ago to want to bring you coffee even if you had asked them." Effie smiled and nestled back into him. "Just think, next Christmas we'll have an actual baby to wake us up, not two adults behaving like babies."

"I suppose we will." Effie mused quietly, drawing circles on his skin with her index finger. "That's a very strange thought."

"And there was both of us a few years ago swearing we wouldn't have children." Haymitch reminded her. He remembered the conversation well, she'd accompanied him to the train station after a particularly long Hunger Games. He couldn't remember if it had been her fifth or six year as escort, but he remembered her dress was navy blue. They'd been watching two children chatting excitedly about the next Hunger Games and she had said under her breath she would never have a child in a place like this. Haymitch hadn't been supposed to hear. He had long suspected Effie, Effie who cried every time a tribute from District 12 died even when they had no chance of surviving, did not belong in the Capitol. It was the first time he had known he was right about that. He'd then expressed similar sentiments and hugged her goodbye much to her surprise, wishing he didn't have to leave.

"Do you think we loved each other back then?" Effie asked. He took comfort in the fact he could mention something small like that and she could know immediately what conversation from their past she was referring to. He liked that she remembered them as well as he did. She was not looking for confirmation necessarily, just sounding genuinely curious.

"Maybe. I mean, you were a nightmare most of the time but you still are and I love you now." Effie laughed instead of being annoyed that he was goading her. She was probably still too annoyed by Annie and Peeta to care what he said. "If we were then both of us were definitely too stubborn to realise it." He played with her hair absentmindedly. He liked her hair, it was soft and pretty and he wanted to silently discourage her from wearing wigs over it all the time again.

"When did you realise?"

"A long time after that conversation." The silence that she let them fall into by not replying seemed to demand a real answer to the question. "The last night of the victory tour." Otherwise known as the time Effie had sobbed for over an hour because the realisation had dawned on her that he would not be a mentor anymore and she would likely never see him again. "And you?"

"I don't think I could pinpoint it. I'll tell you if I ever manage to." He turned so he could kiss her softly and when they broke apart they were lying facing each other. He took her hand and rubbed his thumb softly over the back of it and both of them were quite content to just lie there in silence for a little while, laughing softly when they heard Katniss stomping out of her room cursing Annie and Peeta. Haymitch felt the same awe most mornings when they lay together like that, the same wonder that the beautiful woman he was looking at was his and that he was hers.

"We probably should get up now, sweetheart." Haymitch suggested gently. Effie nodded a little reluctantly and stretched before she sat up. "Would you like me to bring you a coffee in here?"

"Yes please." Effie said as she got up and went to the wardrobe. He knew she was wearing purple and silver today because she wanted to match her Christmas theme. Annie had already agreed to do the same as a way of apologising for berating the theme so much the other day when they had been decorating. Haymitch was still amused by the memory of the pair standing in the kitchen covered in flour. He wished he'd been there, either to witness it first hand or to join in.

Effie sat down at her dressing table and started brushing her hair and he walked over to give her a kiss on the cheek before he left the room.

"Next Christmas," Katniss said when she saw him walking into the kitchen, rubbing sleep from her eyes. "Peeta and Annie can celebrate on their own. You me, Effie, and the baby, we'll go elsewhere." Haymitch looked shocked for a moment before he realised Katniss meant Annie's child, not his. She gave a questioning expression to him but he just smiled and put the kettle on.

"It's not often someone's more excited about an event than Effie." Haymitch said thoughtfully. "We should really be congratulating them for making her bearable in comparison."

"I heard that!" Effie shouted from their bedroom, but he just laughed.

* * *

AN: If anyone's interested, both this and the last chapter were written to a song I've been listening to on repeat called Lonely Neighbour by Oh Honey, it's very sweet and slow which I think has influenced me quite a bit and I definitely recommend listening to it. I just wanted to write some little conversations for Haymitch and Effie and focus on them rather than the other characters for a little while!


	7. Chapter 7

"I've always said I'm fonder of the geese than you, Eff." Haymitch said with a grin. The pair were looking at drawings that Annie's son had presented them with: Effie's was of her and Annie, Haymitch's was of him and a goose that was drawn bigger than him. Effie liked the one he had done for both of them the best; it was of her and Haymitch standing together outside their house. When Annie had seen Haymitch's picture she had been immediately horrified at the thought of a goose that could be larger than a person. The boy had wandered off to give Katniss and Peeta their Christmas drawings.

"The true love of your life." Effie agreed with him, smiling at the picture. She was just glad the geese hadn't made an appearance in her picture.

"I'm so glad you understand."

"I'm going to start cooking Christmas dinner now." Peeta announced from across the room as he stood up. He was adhering wonderfully to her schedule, he liked things to be planned out on busy days exactly like she did even if he wouldn't admit it.

"Try not to burn it!" Katniss called helpfully after him. Effie thought this was good advice, burning the food was not accounted for in her schedule and she never wanted to see her kitchen anything other than spotless after what she and Annie had done to it the other day. They still kept apologising about that, Effie supposed it would be a fun story to tell in a few years, Haymitch was certainly going to be amused by it for years to come.

Effie had not liked Christmas as a child. She remembered bits and pieces she had enjoyed, mostly with her father when he was alive but it was always a very fraught affair. When her father was alive he and her mother would snap at each other most days, usually ending in a blazing row. Christmas was no different, usually worse. She had retreated to her room and brushed the hair on her dolls, trying to make them pretty and ignore the noise outside her door. When she was older and her father was cold in the ground her mother had usually gone away, spending Christmas with friends. Effie had practiced her make-up, using it at first to look pretty despite the tears, then as a mask she never took off which she hoped made her fit in a little more. The one Christmas her mother had stayed for when she was seventeen was the worst of all, she had screamed at Effie for a reason she could no longer remember from the second she got up. When Effie told her to stop drinking she had hurled the glass at her. Effie had packed a case that night and gone to live with Juliana.

This was probably the first good Christmas she'd ever had.

They all sat up at the table to eat a couple of hours later and Effie was quiet, content to just watch them all talking. Haymitch flicked a pea at her when she was being particularly pensive which had snapped her out of her happy daze and she forced him to get under the table and find where it had rolled off to.

"I want to tell them tonight." Haymitch announced to her while they were doing the washing up. It took Effie a few seconds to realise what he was talking about. Effie pretended to consider it.

"I'm afraid we'll not be doing that because unfortunately the activity has not been factored into the Christmas schedule, and if I start breaking the rules for you I'll have to give everyone a pass and before you know it next Christmas we have no schedule at all." Effie shook her head at the very notion. Haymitch gave her a look. "I'm being serious, if you had told me you wanted to make the announcement then I would have factored in an hour or so for it this evening but…"

"Eff we're going home the day after tomorrow, don't you want to tell Annie in person rather than over the phone?" She huffed. He had a point but she wasn't going to admit that.

"What happened to you wanting to make this an extended practical joke?"

"I changed my mind."

"Alright, if you insist." Effie was secretly pleased he was so insistent that they tell everyone else, she knew it was just a manifestation of how happy he was that they were having a child. He seemed pleased by her agreement and as soon as they had finished the rest of the washing up he took her by the hand and led her out to the others who all looked up at them and smiled.

"We have an announcement." Haymitch said.

"Have you set a date for the wedding?" Annie asked gleefully. She was very eager for them to get married, Effie knew, mostly because she wanted to be a bridesmaid again and they were fairly sure they would have the wedding in District 4 and she was excited to have visitors. Effie smiled. She hadn't thought much about the wedding since telling Haymitch about the pregnancy, that was her priority now. She hadn't spoken to Haymitch about it yet but her preference would be to wait until the baby was born before they got married now, it was out of the typical order but a wedding would be stressful for her and she didn't want to be stressed while she was pregnant in case it hurt the baby. Haymitch looked at her expectantly and she was irritated that even though this had been his idea but she was going to have to be the one to actually announce it.

"No, not that." Effie said hesitantly. Annie looked disappointed. "We're going to have a baby."

Peeta was the first to rush over and hug them both, followed by Annie, both smiling delightedly and congratulating the couple fiercely. Katniss looked shocked as she walked over but by no means displeased for them. She hugged Effie tightly first and smiled at her when she let go.

"You're going to be a great mother, Effie." Katniss told her quietly, and that meant even more to her than that others congratulations did. Haymitch kept telling her just the same whenever she worried about it, but the point stood. She had no decent act to follow, god help this poor child if she turned out to be anything at all like her own mother. The fact Katniss would say something like that without knowing how worried Effie was that she wouldn't be nearly made her cry. She was even more over-emotional then she usually was thanks to being pregnant, and she was sure it would only get worse. Katniss squeezed her arm when she noticed that she looked emotional. "So I suppose since you and Haymitch are my unofficial parents that this baby is going to be my unofficial brother or sister."

"We promise we'll still love you just as much." Haymitch said when he overheard, putting one arm around each of them. "We'll love you just as much and we'll love the geese just as much." Katniss laughed and Effie rolled her eyes.

She sat on the sofa later with Annie's son on her lap and Haymitch's arm around her. Peeta had gone to bed and Katniss and Annie were playing cards again – she had never known Annie could be so competitive but she looked more annoyed than anyone Effie had ever seen when she lost a hand and jumped up shouted loudly when she won. Haymitch found it amusing, Effie worried that if Katniss ever won more than a couple of hands in a row that the other woman might injure her, not deliberately, just out of sheer annoyance.

"So, good Christmas, Eff?" Haymitch asked her as he played with a curl of her hair, encouraging the little boy she held to stand up on her lap and do the same. Effie smiled and kissed him on the jaw.

"The best." she assured him.


	8. Chapter 8

Haymitch had enjoyed his time in the Capitol much more than he thought he would when Effie had tricked – sorry, mislead- them into going there with her. He liked remembering all the times he had spent with Effie there before at the only time of year he could actually spend with her, almost wishing he could go back and tell himself how it all worked out. Maybe on some level he had always hoped that it would be like this.

This was the nicest train journey he had ever spent with her. The one on the way there had been good apart from the deceiving – sorry, misleading – but the thought that she was carrying his child now was still so wonderful to him that he couldn't stop thinking of it every time he looked at her.

Effie and Peeta had retired to bed early, both apparently quite exhausted by Christmas, leaving him alone with Katniss.

"There was a time when it would have been just me." Katniss said once Peeta had left and commented that they'd be fine together. "Never thought I'd spend a train journey with you when you didn't live in the bar car." Haymitch threw a cushion at her, but unfazed she just laughed and threw it back. "How has the sobriety been going anyway?"

"It's not easy, but I won't put Effie through living with me while I'm like that, and I'm even more determined now she's having the baby." Haymitch fully expected that the urge to drink would never go away, but since the rebellion it had dulled anyway, and having Effie helped, mostly because he never wanted to see how disappointed she would look if he started again. She hadn't come along and waved a magic wand so all his problems went away, but he was determined to better himself so she would never have to wonder if he was good enough for her or if he was worth the trouble.

"You know if you're ever finding it hard you just have to call me over and I'll hit you with a pan or shoot an arrow into your foot so you have something else to think about." Katniss offered, batting her eyelashes at him.

"What a kind offer."

"Well, you know how much I love to help." He could see that Katniss felt the need to change the subject, she couldn't hold a serious conversation any longer than he could without needing to move onto something a little more comfortable. "So, Effie said you wanted a girl." Haymitch nodded. "Why?"

"I honestly couldn't say. That's just how I imagine it."

"Oh so you've fantasised about this before?" Katniss teased him, and for a moment he cursed himself because it was the kind of thing he was sure she had picked up off him. He would have been proud if she teased Effie more, but it didn't seem fair that she turned it on him. "That's adorable. Was this when she was in the Capitol? Did you plan your wedding too?" He scowled. Effie was a saint for putting up with him when he teased her like this.

"You're so cruel to someone who saved your life multiple times."

"Yeah but that was ages ago." Katniss said with a grin. He threw another cushion at her. "So childish, what on earth would Effie say?"

"I would hope that my darling, kind, fiancée would defend me from your cruel jibes and taunts." Both of them knew perfectly well that Effie would have joined in with Katniss rather than defending him, likely after telling Haymitch off for throwing things across the room where he could easily knock something over.

"She definitely wouldn't though." Haymitch rolled his eyes. Katniss paused thoughtfully for a moment before she spoke again. "It's so strange that you two are having a child. I can't even imagine what a combination of the two of you is going to be like."

"I really don't know. We may have made a horrible mistake."

"No, I'm sure she'll be wonderful." Haymitch gave her a look. "Well I figure if I say she now hopefully it will make it true. I think I'd like you to have a girl too, and Effie swears she doesn't have a preference but we both know she'd like a little mini-me to put in ridiculous dresses." Haymitch raised his eyebrows in horror.

"Well if she's going to dress it like her I'm changing my mind." She smiled, but Haymitch had noticed that Katniss always looked a little withdrawn even when she was the one who brought up the baby. He knew that she was pleased for them but he suspected Effie being pregnant was making her think about having children – after all, she was married and Effie wasn't. "She's much older than you, Katniss. You have time to work out if it's something you want."

"Don't tell Effie she's much older than me, I think you'd send her into a state of shock. I'm really hoping she keeps lying about her age for long enough that she's officially younger than me, I'd love to see her trying to explain that away." Haymitch scoffed at the thought. It sounded exactly like the kind of thing Effie would do eventually, and it would probably go largely unquestioned because none of them would want to engage in that argument with her. "Of course I was ten when I reaped your name, Katniss, how utterly ridiculous to suggest I was any older." Katniss feigned her accent. Effie always complained when any of them did that because apart from Peeta, everyone was very good at it and they knew that. Haymitch grinned.

"I mean it though. Peeta will understand if you don't want a child."

"Will he?" Katniss picked at a thread on her top nervously. "He talks about it like it's something that will happen. After you and Effie told us the news he said 'that'll be us soon' and I realised I'd never mentioned it because I thought he wouldn't want them. And I used to think I didn't want them because of the games, but that's all done now and I'd still be terrified."

"Talk to him. Let him know where your head's at with it and then if you're ever ready you can come to a decision together. Don't keep him in the dark, that's not fair." Katniss sighed, knowing he was right. Despite what Effie liked to think, he usually was.

"You've always been good at advice. Pity you're not a natural at anything else." Katniss said with a grin. He had taught her far too well. He wondered for a moment if he and Effie's child would be like she was and hoped that it was. The baby would be living close to Katniss and Peeta too, he wondered which of their traits it might pick up. He imagined Katniss taking a little blonde girl out into the woods to learn to hunt with her and Peeta teaching her to bake and paint later in the day and he smiled to himself.

"I resent that deeply. I'm very good at raising the geese."

"My apologies. God I hope this child likes the geese as much as you do, Effie will hate that so much, it will be absolutely hilarious. Hopefully it will really like all animals and then you'll get an entire farmyard of them that she can shriek about, Peeta and I love watching her ranting about them in the mornings, it's the best free entertainment out there."

"I'll tell her you said that."


	9. Chapter 9

Two months into her pregnancy Effie's morning sickness started and she didn't complain about it all even though it was terrible.

She discovered that she wasn't supposed to drink coffee which was not too much of a difficulty for her because the taste of it made her feel much worse. She developed a fondness for peppermint tea which left a pleasant scent in the kitchen whenever she made it, apparently wasn't going to hurt the baby in small doses, and helped to dull the nausea.

The book that Annie had sent her said she was supposed to feel less emotionally vulnerable. Effie kept insisting this was true because she was eager to be adhering to what the book thought she should be doing and feeling but the day that she cried when she saw 'a delightful hedgehog' in the garden disproved that. All of the others hadn't believed her about it anyway, Effie was hardly famous for being emotionally steady.

Haymitch started talking to the baby when he thought she was asleep and she managed never to let on that she knew this was something he did. He called the baby Amelia as though trying to coax it into being what he wanted.

Three months into her pregnancy Effie felt much better. She started exercising and Haymitch started clearing out what was to be the nursery. He had suggested they just used the guest room she took over as her workshop when she arrived as it would be much easier, but she had started crying at the thought of being displaced and he had tried not to laugh while he agreed to just clear out the other room. She offered to help but he wouldn't let her, he was much more worried about her than she was even if he tried not to let on that he was.

Four months into her pregnancy Effie discovered that she hated hands on her stomach, even her own, and cursed that she had another five months of it to endure. Katniss noticed she hated it and stopped but neither of the others did. Effie didn't want to make them feel bad by complaining, and she resolved to just deal with it for the rest of this pregnancy, then joke about it once the baby was born and nobody could get upset with her, and then at least they would know not to do it if she had another one. The only time she didn't mind it was at night when Haymitch would rest his hands there while they slept, as though to protect the baby. That was actually comforting and didn't make her squirm.

"The baby's not even kicking yet!" she had ranted in Katniss's kitchen and as if on cue the baby had kicked for the first time and she had screamed aloud she was so surprised by this.

Annie came to visit and assured Effie that she had hated it too and Effie had been so pleased that it wasn't just her being a bad person that she had started crying on the spot, which didn't seem to faze Annie at all.

Five months into her pregnancy Effie finally started showing, much later than the book had said she would, and it was the first time she had been absolutely delighted that the book was wrong about something. She had insisted on going to the Capitol, accompanied by Annie and Haymitch, to get some decent maternity wear as well as furniture for the nursery and clothes for the baby. They got absolutely everything they could need because even Effie didn't want the hassle of another trip before the baby was born.

The trip gave Effie the chance to go to the doctors too. The baby was developing well. It had a strong heartbeat.

It was a girl.

Six months into her pregnancy Effie was still relatively small, and she knew the baby was going to be a lot like her because she thought it was very polite of it not to make her too massive. Haymitch told her that it wasn't the baby's choice how big she got, but she ignored him.

Katniss did not tell Peeta gently that she didn't want children; rather she screamed it at him one day when he said 'that will be us soon' for the millionth time while looking at Haymitch and Effie. Peeta had stayed with them for a few nights, the rows they had were worse than any Haymitch and Effie had ever engaged in, and Effie was worried that this might do irreparable damage to their relationship. Peeta confided in her that he wasn't upset about it, not at all really, but he wished she had told him sooner and in a different way. Effie understood. She held Katniss while she cried, and Effie thought that finally her excessive emotions might be settling down because she managed to be resilient for the both of them. Peeta went back after a week and a much calmer discussion and Effie could finally breathe again.

Seven months into her pregnancy Effie watched while Haymitch and Katniss painted her nursery. Peeta was supposed to help, but he mostly just shouted to them from the ground about colour schemes. Katniss got so annoyed with him that she painted a line down his face that didn't properly wash off for four days.

Effie had vivid nightmares about the baby, usually involving losing it in the woods or it drowning. She had similar dreams about herself when she was a child, always terrified of being lost or being drowned more than anything else. Haymitch said it was probably natural for her to worry about the same things when it came to the baby. Whenever she had them she woke him up like he had made her promise to and described them in detail. It helped.

Annie described breast feeding in detail to her over the phone and Effie was so horrified that she decided then and there she would be bottle feeding the baby. Nobody in the Capitol really breastfed anyway, she told herself, determined not to feel guilty as she researched the various pros and cons of it in the pile of books she had accumulated that was only growing, but nothing swayed her. It was the one decision she wouldn't discuss with anyone other than Haymitch, and Haymitch, who had worried about everything constantly, was over joyed he would be able to feed his daughter when she was born, and his support was all she really cared about. She hadn't needed to describe in detail to him everything Annie told her, but she did anyway, and he had been as horrified as she was.

"There's even pictures in here!" Effie had exclaimed, showing him the page in the book she had been reading and his eyes said it all.

The baby kicked all the time and Effie thought she might not be so polite after all.

Eight months into her pregnancy Effie could no longer sit or lie comfortably at all, and she hated it. Her ankles swelled at the end of each day and nothing helped. It was the first time she had just wanted it to be over. She tried not to complain too much but it was terrible and everyone understood that sometimes she couldn't just keep it to herself.

Nine months into her pregnancy Effie was delighted to see Annie again, who had come with Katniss's mother who would be delivering the baby. Effie was just impatient to get the baby born so she could lie down again.

"You've hardly gained any weight, Effie!" Annie had assured her, and Effie pretended that she wasn't still vain enough to be delighted to hear that.

Amelia was born exactly on her due date, 23rd July.


	10. Chapter 10

"She's so perfect…"

"Haymitch, leave her be, she's sleeping." Effie said from the doorway. He turned around to smile at her. Haymitch was terrible at leaving Amelia alone. Every time he left the side of her crib to try to do something else he would find his way back up to the lilac room where his daughter was sleeping. He liked watching her sleep, making sure that she was okay. He was terrified of anything happening to her. This morning he had got up, promising to make Effie some of the peppermint tea she was still so fond of. After half an hour she had gone to investigate and found him in there. She couldn't be annoyed about it, seeing him with their daughter warmed her heart.

"She likes having me here." he insisted, and Effie tried to laugh quietly. They baby stirred and opened her eyes, not making a sound. She very rarely cried. "See, she's awake now anyway. She wants to come and feed the geese with me." Haymitch scooped her out of her crib.

"I'm certain that she doesn't." Effie said before she walked over to them and gave her daughter a kiss on the forehead which made the little girl wrinkle her nose in the most adorable way. "Good morning, sweetie." Effie stroked a hand over Amelia's soft blonde hair. She hoped her little eyes stayed as blue as they were now.

"Here, you take her and feed her, I'll feed the geese." Haymitch said as he gently passed Amelia over to her. Effie laughed. She hoped that was a sound her daughter heard a lot of the years, she fully expected it to be.

"I'm very pleased to know where your priorities lie."

"We can't neglect our other children, Eff." Haymitch said with a wink as he kissed her cheek.

"I really hope that joke stops before she's old enough to know you're comparing her to the most disgusting bird that exists." Effie sighed. She knew it wouldn't, Haymitch latched onto the jokes he liked and never let go of them. "Come on then Euphemia." He had decided he liked calling her by her full name when she was holding the baby because she couldn't give him a sharp swat with whatever she was holding at the time if her hands were occupied with the baby.

"I swear, if I wasn't holding our darling daughter…"

"But you are, so you won't do anything. Euphemia." If looks could kill, Haymitch would be lying on the floor unable to breathe.

"You have no idea how much I regret telling you that." Haymitch grinned. Oh well, better he knew now thank find out when being asked to repeat her full name at their wedding and ruin the whole thing by laughing so much he would be unable to continue. This was probably a small price to pay to avoid that embarrassment.

Effie sat on the steps outside their house to feed Amelia, she did most mornings. She sat there, nursing the little girl who had quickly become the most precious thing in her life. She would sit there and talk to her which Haymitch teased her for even though he did just the same whenever he fed or held her. Effie was paranoid that if she didn't talk, she might forget what he voice sounded like.

"Not much chance of that, Eff, since when have you ever been quiet for more than thirty seconds at a time?" Haymitch had asked her. The comment irritated her, but it was hardly something she could argue with, she did talk nearly constantly.

Today she talked to Amelia about how terrible the geese were and how ridiculous her father was, knowing he could hear every word she said, often loudly interjecting something to contradict what she was saying until he went inside to finally make her the tea she had been craving since she woke up, unable to resist ruffling her hair on the way in so it stood up in a way he knew she hated.

"As I was saying, darling, your father is an utter nightmare. An utter nightmare who I could not adore any more than I do already. Who loves you so dearly. I'd almost be jealous if I didn't love you just as much." She stroked her hair again. Since giving birth she had understood why Haymitch liked to play with her hair so much, there was something delightfully soothing about Amelia's hair under her palm and Amelia always went very still and quiet whenever she did it which made Effie think she was enjoying it too. That was definitely an inherited trait.

Haymitch brought her tea out and she passed their baby to him so she could cradle the mug in her hands instead. Effie loved watching how he doted on Amelia.

Katniss and Peeta spotted them out of the window and Effie waved them both over, not caring that she wasn't even dressed yet. She was so pleased not to be pregnant anymore that she was determined to enjoy the first few weeks in as much comfort as possible, which meant no impractical dresses. Still dresses of course, she would never wear anything else, just comfortable ones that she could easily hold Amelia while she was wearing, and ones that she didn't put on straight away when she got up. She had however gone back to her usual towering heels as her ankles had gone back to normal size almost the second that she had given birth. Everyone was impressed by how well Effie could carry Amelia while she wore them, although Haymitch stood close by her, ready to catch both of them if she fell over. Effie thought that he needn't have worried about it; she would never do anything so unladylike as falling over.

"Annie's still in bed." Peeta said as they came over and sat cross legged in front of her and Haymitch. Her son was a nightmare at the moment, Annie was saying, sleeping for most of the day then keeping Annie up all night. Effie was sure that Amelia would be a polite enough child that she would never do that, although Haymitch insisted it wasn't an issue of politeness. Effie disagreed, everything was an issue of manners, Haymitch had surely known her long enough to realise that? "Do you mind if I hold her?" Peeta asked with a smile.

"Haymitch…" Effie said warningly. He was fine sharing the baby with her, but apparently one other person who wanted to hold her was quite enough to share with. He handed Amelia over albeit reluctantly and Effie tried to pretend that she didn't see the longing in Peeta's eyes as he held her. She knew he wanted to be a father desperately, and that he would be good at it if he ever got the chance. She couldn't blame Katniss for not wanting a child, Effie herself hadn't wanted one for most of her life, but that didn't mean she didn't feel incredibly sympathetic towards Peeta. Effie watched Katniss eyeing her husband with Amelia. Katniss had not held the baby yet, something she had only noticed when Haymitch pointed it out the day before. She wouldn't address the issue in front of everyone, she wasn't that tactless, but she was going to bring it up with Katniss at some point in the future. Come to think of it, she tended to avoid Annie's son when she could too, would never walk around with him attached to her hip the way that Peeta did sometimes. Effie wondered if the younger children made her remember Prim.

"She is gorgeous." Peeta said softly as Amelia wrapped her tiny hand around one of his fingers.

"Of course she is." Haymitch said, and for a moment Effie was tricked into thinking he might say something nice about her. "She takes after me." Katniss and Peeta laughed loudly and Effie scoffed at the idea.

"I think she looks more like Effie." Katniss said, taking Effie's hand and giving it a squeeze.

"That's sweet, but I think she just looks like a baby for the moment." Effie commented, making Haymitch laugh. "We can argue about whose good looks she has when she's a little bit older."

"Sounds good, Eff. Could I have my daughter back now, please?" he asked Peeta, surprisingly polite about it. Peeta grinned at him and gave Amelia back to him. Effie smiled at the way he hugged her close before he let her settle back into his arms. Perhaps it was a good thing that Katniss didn't want to hold her, anymore people wanting a turn of her daughter and it would probably be like pass the parcel. Effie didn't want to disturb her too much by passing her about, although hopefully Amelia wouldn't mind and she would just know that there were a lot of people who wanted to spend as much time with her as possible because they loved her so much.

Effie got Katniss on her own later that afternoon. Annie was giving Haymitch some parenting tips while he fed Amelia which he was surprisingly receptive too – he might have hated being told what to do but he was eager to be as good a parent as he could be, and if that meant taking advice from someone more seasoned than he was then so be it.

"I don't want to talk about it, Effie." Katniss said firmly when Effie brought the topic up as they were walking outside. Effie hadn't wanted anyone to hear them which was probably a good decision based on how the conversation between them went.

"It's okay." Effie said, using almost the same tone she used when she spoke to Amelia, wanting Katniss to understand that she wasn't angry about it, just that it was something they needed to speak about. "I know that. And I know that you love her even if you can't hold her, and she knows that too." Katniss nodded, her eyes blurry with tears, and Effie took her into her arms, feeling as though Katniss was every bit the daughter to her that they joked she was.

"She reminds me of Prim." Katniss had sobbed into her chest and Effie brushed her fingers through her hair to calm her down.

"I know, darling, I know."

They lay down on the grass together and Katniss used Effie like a pillow, falling asleep on her once she had finished crying. Katniss was dealing with Prim's death in her own way, slowly. She very rarely said her name.


End file.
